Ridley Jacobs

Often lampooned for his gawky technique behind the stumps, the rather diminutive Ridley Jacobs was hardly the prototype of a solid wicket-keeper. His batting too carried no proper technique.

Surmounting tremendous odds, the Antigua player, carved a niche for himself, finishing as a successful keeper-batsman in a era where West Indies cricket was in a state of flux, a far cry from the glory days of the 80's and early 90's.

Figuring in 65 Tests, Jacobs accounted for 207 catches and 12 stumping in addition to tallying 2500+ runs with the bat. In fact Jacobs is only the second Windies keeper to claim more than 200 grabs. He was an aggressive batsman in limited overs cricket, more so when he was promoted to open the batting.

Jacobs' first-class debut arrived in the 1991/92 season but he had to wait for his international opportunity for almost 6 long years. The wicket-keeping duties revolved around Courtney Browne and Junior Murray between 1992 and 1998. Jacobs was finally handed his Test debut on the tour to South Africa in 1998 but it turned out to be catastrophic one with West Indies crashing to a 0-5 whitewash. Slowly, albeit steadily in his own inimitable fashion, Jacobs evolved to become an automatic pick in the West Indies XI until the emergence of Courtney Browne and Carlton Baugh in 2004.

Though his batsmanship was nowhere close to pretty, it was quite effective with the whiplash and pick-up flicks being his staple shots. Often farming the strike with the tail, Jacobs produced some glittering cameos lower down the order. He hit 3 Test hundreds with his best of 118 coming against India at his home ground in a stalemate. Jacobs was other the other end when Brian Lara stroked his way to 400. However, soon after his retirement, he pinned the blame for West Indies' decline on Lara, questioning the latter's leadership credentials.

Another knock which stands out is his unbeaten 96 against the potent Aussies on a treacherous Perth pitch, where he pulled the chestnuts out of fire when the seniors folded faster than an origami expert.

He appeared to be more comfortable in ODIs with his strike rate of 70.06 painting a better picture. Jacobs will be remembered for his guts and gumption that gleamed like headlights on an unlit highway.

By Deivarayan Muthu